CDO: Work on Your Interview Skills

This was the advice a 2L offered last year: “This may be obvious, but work on your interview skills because come OCIP that is really the only factor you can influence, and it is a very important factor.”

Check out our effective interviewing skills webpage (a link to which can be found on our Fall 2010 OCIP webpage) for guides and webcasts aimed at improving your interviewing skills. The Detailed Guide To Effective Interviewing includes sections discussing specific questions you can expect to be asked as well as some questions you can pose to the interviewer.

Students interested in public interest or government careers should definitely attend the Panel on Effective PI/PS Interviewing Strategies scheduled for August 19th (from 1PM to 2PM in Room 140). For more information, see the “Upcoming Events” section of the CDO homepage.

A couple of other announcements/reminders:

Phase 1 Bidding Ends Tomorrow at 5PMBidding for Phase I OCIP employer interviews will close tomorrow 8/17 at 5PM sharp — the bids have to be processed and employers have to be given sufficient time to review the resumes of the students on their schedules (which start on Mon. 8/23), so there can be no exceptions to, or extensions of, this deadline. You should print a copy of your bids for your records because you won’t have access to them once bidding closes. Likewise, you will not be able to make changes to any versions of the resumes you have attached to your Phase I bids after tomorrow at 5PM. For more information/tips about uploading your resume and bidding, see the relevant sections of the OCIP Mechanics webpage.

Student Storage Space at the Hotel
You can temporarily store a change of clothes, backpack, or shoes in the Student Lounge over at the Hotel Durant (the location for all OCIP interviews). It’s on the first floor (which is actually one level up from the hotel’s entrance) and has two bathrooms that you can use for changing. There will be some coat racks in the room and it also has two decent sized closets. It will not be locked and there will be lots of student traffic, so it’s not all that secure. However, the hotel will supply an attendant between 9 and 5 who will do his or her best to make sure no one takes your items. Unfortunately, you will not be able to leave your items in the Student Lounge overnight.

Partners in Leadership Spotlight Reception — Thursday, August 26, 6 p.m.-7:30p.m. on the West Terrace (outside of Boalt Room 10)

Kick off the fall recruiting season with this fantastic networking opportunity where you will meet alumni from firms that have truly made a commitment to shaping Berkeley Law’s future. Invitees are firms and corporations with a high percentage of Boalt alums who have participated in the annual Partners in Leadership challenge. Attorneys from Covington & Burling, Farella, Fish & Richardson, Gibson Dunn, Google, Latham & Watkins, Milbank, Schiff Hardin, Sheppard Mullin, White & Case, and several others are expected to attend.

These alums are here to meet students, so please take full advantage of the opportunity.

If you are not clear about the value of attending these kinds of events, you ought to check out our OCIP FAQ (Number 8).

Firm Dinners

We wanted to give you a heads up (for those of you interviewing with private firms during OCIP) about a recruiting practice that some firms use that involves inviting some of the students they met during the course of their interviewing day to dinner that same evening.

It is not a very common practice, but if you do get such an invite:

1. You should make every effort to attend if you have any interest at all in the firm;
2. You should view the dinner as a continuation of your interview (and you will, in fact, continue to be evaluated by them);
3. At the same time, keep in mind they are trying to evaluate you in a social setting, so you do not want to appear like someone who cannot relax in a less formal business setting. Your challenge will be to find a balance between keeping your mind alert and “in interview mode” while not appearing like a “stuffed-shirt.”
4. Be sensitive to the fact that others on a particular employer’s schedule may not have received a dinner invitation.
5. Your attire for the dinner should be at least as formal as your interviewer’s was during the interview (i.e., if they were business casual, you should either stay in your interview suit or, assuming you have time to go home before dinner, change to business casual).